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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125543">Two Branches of One Tree</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_more_offbeat_anthem/pseuds/one_more_offbeat_anthem'>one_more_offbeat_anthem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love, Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss, Dean finally gets his beach vacation, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Human Castiel (Supernatural), Light Angst, Post-Canon Fix-It</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:46:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,111</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_more_offbeat_anthem/pseuds/one_more_offbeat_anthem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of the final showdown against Chuck, Cas and Dean have a lot to talk about. Mainly, how Dean almost died, how Cas saved him, and what Cas is now. (And what to do next.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel &amp; Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Two Branches of One Tree</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>(I can’t really say this is a fix-it because s15 isn’t over yet but this is how I want it to end and I know it won’t end this way. Pre-fix-it?)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Grow old along with me, two branches of one tree…..Face the setting sun, when the day is done.” —Grow Old With Me by The Postal Service</em>
</p><p>******</p><p>Cas looked away from the now-disintegrating body of Chuck, and from Jack, doing the deed, toward the man lying on the ground in an awful crumble.</p><p>“Is there anything you can do?” Sam asked, worry and adrenaline lacing his voice, “Or is he…?”</p><p>Neither of them wanted to say it.</p><p>Cas ignored the screams from behind them and knelt down next to Dean, “He’s still alive. There’s something I can do, but it’s a risk and it might not—“</p><p>“Don’t have to save me, I’ll be fine,” Dean mumbled, slowly pushing himself up into a seated position, “I’m gonna make it.”</p><p>“No,” Cas tried to keep the sob out of his voice, “You’re dying. You have to let me—“</p><p>“You have to save your grace.”</p><p>“For what?”</p><p>“Sam, don’t let him—“</p><p>Sam looked at Cas, “Whatever you have to do…if you think it’s the right thing to do, then do it. I trust you.”</p><p>Cas nodded once, “Thank you. I hope this isn’t good-bye.” Then he turned his attention back to Dean. The hunter’s face was partially covered in dried blood, and his nose was definitely broken. That wasn’t the real problem though—Dean had been thrown around the clearing, had already been fighting things for decades before he got here. His body was exhausted, and it was going to shut down.</p><p>“Don’t do this, man,” Dean said, starting to slur his words, “You should live, not me.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, Dean.” Cas pressed his mouth against Dean’s, and there was a flash of light, and then just Sam, standing over the bodies of his brother and best friend.</p><p>******</p><p>Dean woke up with a pounding headache.</p><p>He sat up, slowly. He was back in his room in the bunker—that much was evident. Everything hurt, but he was also…hungry?</p><p>How had he gotten here?</p><p>He remembered Cas’s body slumping against his, knocking him to the ground, and then nothingness. But before that? Blinding light, and then Cas—</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>Dean stood up, made for the door. The room was spinning, but he needed to find someone and talk to—</p><p>“You’re awake,” Sam said, opening the door, “Go lay down.”</p><p>“Where’s Cas?”</p><p>“He’s fine. Trust me. Just please lay down. You’ve been through a great deal and—“ Sam tried to prevent Dean from shouldering past him.</p><p>“<em>Where’s Cas</em>?”</p><p>“Christ, Dean. I told you, he’s fine. He’s resting, just like you.”</p><p>“So he’s not….” Dean retreated to his bed, sitting down and running his hands through his hair, noticing now that there were bandages on his face, “He’s not….”</p><p>“No. He didn’t die. But he is….” Sam sat down in the chair next to Dean’s bed, “Different.”</p><p>“Bad different?”</p><p>“You can decide for yourself.”</p><p>Suddenly, there were voices from the hall. Dean recognized Jack saying, “He’s probably still resting. You can’t go in there—and you should be in bed too. If I weren’t low on grace I’d—“</p><p>“You’d what?” That was a voice he knew, too…Cas’s voice, still gravelly.</p><p>“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far. But I don’t know if—“</p><p>“He’s awake,” Sam called, “Pigheaded idiot was trying to do the same thing as Cas.”</p><p>The voices stopped abruptly, and then Jack and Cas entered the room.</p><p>“Alright, Cas?” Dean asked, staring at him.</p><p>Cas looked like he’d seen a ghost, “Yeah. You?”</p><p>Dean shrugged, “Been worse.” He turned to Jack, “Did you really kill God?”</p><p>“Pretty much, yeah.” Jack sighed, “There’s been a lot going on.”</p><p>“How long have I been out?”</p><p>“A week,” Sam said, “You and Cas both. Speaking of….I’ll go get some food. You two must be hungry. Jack, will you help me?”</p><p>“Sure thing.”</p><p>Dean and Cas were left alone.</p><p>“C’mon, you can sit down,” Dean said, patting the bed next to him. Cas walked over, slowly, and sat down. His face was unshaven and he looked…smaller.</p><p>“Sam said,” Dean swallowed, “Sam said you were different. Different….how?”</p><p>Cas looked down at his hands, “I used the last of my grace to save you, so I’m….human now. I guess I’ve really fallen.”</p><p>“But surely we can—we can get it back, and you can be an angel again, and—“</p><p>Cas smiled, chuckled a little, shocking Dean, “No. I don’t want it back. Unlike before, when I was stripped of it…this time I chose to give it up.”</p><p>Dean pondered for a moment, “I just…..gotta get this out of the way. If….if the way you used your grace was simply a matter of convenience, that’s alright. That’s fine."</p><p>“Do you want it to have been that way?” Cas locked eyes with him.</p><p>“Was it meant that way?”</p><p>Cas swallowed now, “No. It was….yes, it was the most direct way to get it to you. But it was also….if it wasn’t going to work, I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t want you to die….without letting you know.”</p><p>“I already knew, what with the amount of times you’ve saved my stupid life,” Dean smiled weakly, “But still….why stay human now?”</p><p>Cas stared at a random point on the wall in front of him, “I’ve been around for millenia. I’ve lived a long, if truncated, life. I think…..I’d like to grow old.” He turned to Dean, “With you. If that’s alright.”</p><p>“It’s more than alright.”</p><p>******</p><p>It had been six months, and things had finally calmed down enough for Team Free Will 2.0 to finally go on that beach vacation Dean had been dreaming about for years.</p><p>Although, now that he was finally at the beach, he was content to just lay in the sand, with his eyes closed, listening to the crashing of the waves, and the shouting of Sam and Jack as they ran through the water.</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>Dean opened his eyes to find Cas standing above him. He smiled, “What’s up?”</p><p>“Someone looks happy.”</p><p>“I <em>am </em>happy.” Dean sat up, patted the ground next to him, “Sit down.”</p><p>Cas sat, gently taking Dean’s hand as he did. Dean had spent large portions of the past six months wondering why he hadn’t held hands with Cas more <em>before </em>they killed Chuck—because it was pretty great. He also felt like he had missed out on serious chunks of time when he could have been kissing Cas--they had a lot of lost time to make up for. </p><p>Cas was pretty great.</p><p>“Was this all you’d hoped for?” Cas asked.</p><p>“Even better than I could have imagined.”</p>
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